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The Engagement	By : saritat9 Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Ron/Hermione Views: 6588 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I'm not making any money with this. No copyright infrigment intended.

Chapter List
- 7
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The Engagement

Chapter 8: The Confrontation
Christina sighed after closing the door on Ron.

It was over.

This really was something she should've done days -perhaps even weeks- ago. She felt emancipated, in a guilty sort of way...if such a contradiction was possible. She had really done a number on herself without even realizing it; tying herself to Ron and expecting herself to fall in love with him if only she would get him to fall in love with her first.

She had started with dumbing herself down. Ron was certainly not the first bloke she had ever done that for but in the end he might just have been the only one who wouldn't have required that, after all...even if it was Hermione Granger he really loved. At least it made it obvious that smartness in a woman wasn't a turn off for him like it was for most men their age. Most of those men, let alone famous men, wanted a trophy girlfriend that would in time turn into a trophy wife.

So, that was what she had tried to give him.

She had emulated the women she had seen him with in the past. She had a lot of reference material since he was a fixture in both the tabloids and the more serious newspapers of wizarding Britain. He was famous abroad too, but to a lesser extent.

That hadn't been the epitome of her stupidity though, nor her greatest mistake. Her greatest mistake was the manipulation of him with her feelings, sometimes genuine and sometimes acted. Every time she had sensed some romantic or sexual interest in Ron towards Hermione, she had tried to distract him or divert his attention elsewhere, mainly on herself. Self-confessedly not the most moral of people, Christina had still known it wasn't something she should have been doing. And she had known it wouldn't turn out well. People didn't like being manipulated, and the manipulator only ended up resenting the need for the manipulation in the first place.

The last straw to their relationship, already teetering on the edge, had been Percy's little slip during dinner.

Quitting the team! The team with her brother!

Ron hadn't cared about her enough to even let her know that he had been entertaining the idea, let alone considering it seriously. He hadn't cared enough to realize that his quitting the team would interest her too because of her brother. She felt very protective of him, even though they didn't see each other very often because of the way he had to travel. She felt cheated for not being told that he would lose a close teammate and bad about having to inform him that his sister no longer dated said teammate, either. If the two men were close enough mates, they'd get over it eventually. She couldn't really guess if that would be the case. On the other hand, Christina didn't really mind the auror part. If it was something Ron really wanted to do...and something he obviously had been good at... why not.

Christina walked to the fridge and cut herself a hefty piece of cheesecake. Yes, she had had pudding at the restaurant but this situation deserved something.

A door first opened and then closed somewhere in the flat and soon Kate walked in the kitchen.

"Hey. Ron not staying over tonight?"

"No. I broke up with him." Christina informed while breaking a piece of cake with her fork and shoving it inside her mouth.

"What?!"

"I broke up with Ron." Christina repeated after swallowing the cake, and started to smirk a tiny bit. She hadn't been the one to break things off with a boyfriend in years. It was an oddly liberating experience.

"Are you okay?" Kate asked worriedly, patting her on the shoulder.

"Not so much. But I will be. Grab a piece of cake and I'll tell you all about it."

= = =

Hermione and Percy were standing outside her door while she searched for her keys inside her purse.

"I had a nice time." she told him as she found the keys and pulled them out, "Do you want to come inside and get that book I told you about?"

"Alright, though I can't stay long. I have a very busy day ahead of me tomorrow."

"Oh, I do too. I just meant for the book." Hermione felt awkward about Percy getting the wrong idea and she could feel the heat starting to rise to her cheeks.

She opened the door and let Percy lead the way to the parlour. Thankfully, she had left a table light on so they didn't need to stumble across the short hallway in the dark. She started to browse through the Ns in one of her bookshelves when she remembered reading the book in bed a few nights ago. It must still be beside her bed, she realized. She left Percy to inspect the few photographs she had on her mantelpiece while she went to the bedroom.

The book in question sat innocently on her nightstand, next to an old, framed photograph of Ron. It was the first picture she had ever gotten of him, the one he had sent her during their first summer off Hogwarts using Percy's owl. As such it also featured �Scabbers', or more to the point his tail as that was the only thing visible of him in the picture, wiggling out of Ron's pocket. Ron in the picture was smiling, although not very convincingly, as if he was only doing it because his mother was telling him to so that she could get a decent picture. It was a picture that always reminded her of their shared past and all the years she had known him.

No one knew of course that Hermione had a picture of Ron beside her bed. It was a picture of him as a boy, yes, but the placing of it made it all so clear. Looking at it right now, with Percy in the very next room made her feel rather rotten. She didn't want to give Percy the wrong idea. Especially after tonight.

When she returned to the parlour with the book, Percy was holding a photograph of her parents.

"Your mother looks just like you. Are your parents still in Australia?"

"Yes, they live there for most of the year. They visit me once in awhile and I visit them, too. Portkeys make it easy, although it takes a lot of paperwork when you want to go overseas. Listen Percy...I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Of course. Should we sit down?."

"Yes, that might be a good idea."

They sat down on the opposite ends of her small sofa, thighs nearly touching while Hermione turned to face Percy. "I want you to know that I like you, and that I have great respect for you both as a professional and as a man."

"Oh, I feel the same way about you." Percy supplied eagerly.

"That's not all. I've felt really...nice about finding out more about you and getting to know you as something more than Ron's brother. And if things were different, I could see myself perhaps starting to think of you as something more in due time. But as things are how they are...and because you are Ron's brother...I can't keep on going out with you anymore. Unless it's just as friends. And I would like that a lot, if you wanted to do that. As friends."

Percy was surprised into speechlessness, making Hermione feel like the antithesis of eloquence. It seemed like he had had no idea that this was coming...and in a way Hermione felt the same. She had tried to keep an open mind about him and a possible if unlikely future together, but she couldn't lie to herself anymore or force her feelings. She loved Ron. And even if she never confessed the depth of her feelings to him, expecting them to change or conveniently die was not only wrong but stupid. The whole mistake she had made with Viktor (mainly telling about him to anyone and letting the rest of the wizarding populous assume what they wanted) had filled her quota of inane stupidity for a lifetime. Hermione swore she was through with being stupid.

"Friends." Percy repeated like he had never really pondered the word and all that it entailed.

"Yes. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you before, but I wasn't sure until tonight and we weren't really exclusive or that serious-"

Percy glanced at his expensive wristwatch. "I apologize for taking this much of your time, it's getting later than I thought. We should both be in bed. I thank you for the book, I shall return it to you at the Burrow as soon as I have read it. Good night."

Then Percy strode outside, closing the door behind him with slightly more vigour than needed and Hermione heard the sound of disapparition.

"That went so well." she muttered sarcastically to herself, feeling sad and a little bit ashamed.

At least she had done it, and her conscience was clear...or more so than before. That had to count for something.

= = =

After leaving Christina's flat Ron walked around town. He didn't know how much time had passed since those words had started ringing in his head "I suggest you start by telling her. By telling her. Telling -"

He was angry. In fact he was bursting.

He realized full well that he was being inconsistent. He had known early on Christina wasn't the one he would eventually want to marry. He hadn't wanted to date her anymore. He had been scared shitless about breaking the news to her, and even more scared of breaking the news to her brother, who was very tall and very wide and whom he liked very much.

And now he had been cast aside because all this time she had been reading him like an open book. Manipulating him and his reactions. He had known she wasn't as dumb as she usually portrayed herself to be but he had ignored it. The depth of her betrayal, however well deserved...

Ron was shocked when he found himself standing on the street where Hermione lived, opposite her flat. Like an owl delivering a message, he had unwittingly acted according to Christina's perceptive suggestion. He hesitated. This wasn't the time for the conversation they needed to have. It was late and she was probably getting ready for bed.

He was already turning away when he heard her front door open. It was Percy! Percy hurried out and disapparated so fast that Ron almost didn't believe he saw him at all; it was more like a figment of his imagination at it's most pessimistic.

This just topped his evening, didn't it? His dear brother Percy, getting caught leaving Hermione's flat late at night. Maybe she shared his feelings. Maybe her flat wasn't the only thing she had let him inside of. Maybe he had waited too long and it was already too late.

Ron had never really allowed himself to think about how he would feel if Percy and Hermione were to continue seeing each other and if it turned serious. Now that he had seen Percy coming out of her flat late at night he had his first chance to find out how it really felt.

There were no words for it.

He should go home to calm down and think everything over.

He didn't.

= = =

"Did you forget something, Percy?" Hermione asked as she opened the door, not realizing that there had been no sound of apparition. Therefore, the redhead storming into her flat wasn't Percy, but Ron. And he looked...agitated. Off, somehow.

"Ron! What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

Ron ignored the question and prowled around, avoiding her eyes.

"Ron? Ronald!!"

"What did you say to Christina when you two went to the loo tonight?"

"What?"

"I know you must have said something to her because she suddenly has this ridiculous notion that you and I share these deep hidden feelings for each other." Ron's tone was sharp but his eyes searched her face as if trying to scan her reaction.

"De-deep hidden feelings?" she swallowed hard, "I didn't say anything to her. Well, except for small talk that I don't even remember anymore. What's this about deep hidden feelings?"

Ron ignored her again.

"And Percy! Went well? Didn't he want to spend the night? Things didn't take that long, huh. Well, my dear brother is getting a bit long in the tooth."

"What exactly are you implying here, Ronald?" Hermione pronounced slowly with an icy tone that usually warned everyone that Hermione Granger was nearing the end of her tether.

"I'm implying nothing. You're dating my brother; why shouldn't you be shagging him as well."

"Wait a minute. Why indeed shouldn't I be shagging him? I did not, you know, but even if I bloody well did, what business is that of yours? What right are you delusional enough to think you have; barging in here at this hour, raving like a lunatic? Why do you even care whom I shag or don't!?" and as a somewhat revealing afterthought she added, "You have Christina."

"Percy's my brother! Even if I don't exactly like the pompous git all the time, I don't want anyone trifling with his emotions." Ron shot back viciously, "As for Christina, well, she's gone!".

"Gone?" Hermione repeated dumbly, "Where?"

"She left me." Ron spelled out.

"Why?"

"That's what I'd like to know, too."

"What do you mean?"

"You must have said something to her. Something that made her think of our �deep hidden feelings'."

"I honestly can't think of anything I might've said that could have been taken in such a way," she mumbled thoughtfully, trying to fend off panic, "Didn't she say anything else?"

"No." his answer was final. It, of course, had not been all that Christina had said, but Ron didn't want to incriminate himself just yet, he wanted to gauge at Hermione's feelings first. But Hermione wanted to consort with Percy.

Christina had left Ron! Christina had left Ron. The same exact night that she had stopped seeing Percy. They were both fresh out of a "relationship" at the same time. They were single. Hermione couldn't understand or believe any of it. She wondered distantly if she may have been in shock.

"Is that all you have to say?" Ron demanded, his face red and breathing heavily.

"I don't know what else to say."

"Well I hope you're happy now. Especially if your feelings were the reason you sabotaged Christina and me."

Hermione finally lost her temper. Ron was getting too close to the truth, but the timing of his accusation was simply ridiculous. She had certainly never sabotaged any of his relationships but now he accused her of it just after she had decided to treat his current girlfriend with respect and even cautious warmth.

"I said nothing to Christina and I did nothing to sabotage the two of you! Stop blaming everyone else and consider what you might have done wrong." she shrieked. A part of her was trying to whisper that she might be going a bit too far but she couldn't get her mouth to shut when she was dying to say the rest. "And stop ranting about sodding feelings when you don't understand the concept of them anyway!"

Ron turned to stone. She thought he didn't understand feelings? The kind that took over your entire being and left you with no peace until you felt ready to try just about anything to shut them out. Well, anything except confessing to the object of them. He had spent many nights exercising, going out for walks, even reading. He really didn't like reading. That was more her forte, and unfortunately that too reminded him of her.

"Do you miss Viktor so much that it has blinded you to the possibility that other people might have the same kind of feelings?" he asked quietly. "The kind that keep you up at night because you can't stop thinking about her? The one that got away?"

Hermione couldn't face his tortured eyes anymore so she turned her back on him and sat down on the edge of the sofa, rubbing her eyes. She just wanted to escape this situation, to go to bed and not get up for days, weeks if possible.

Ron was in love with someone. Someone that had got away. It could be anyone, but she didn't want to know. She hadn't been ready to find out that now that they were, unbeknownst to him, simultaneously single, there was still someone in their way. Someone else he preferred. It seemed to her that Ron was more upset about his pride getting hurt with Christina than his feelings, so it had to be someone else who had gotten away. Especially if she had already kept him awake at nights worrying, which Christina couldn't be responsible for.

Suddenly Hermione realized that she had been quiet for a while already and that she hadn't replied anything to Ron's heartfelt confession.

"I'm sorry Ron. I didn't mean it. I just got so mad at what you said...but I know that's no excuse."

"What about Viktor? It hasn't been that long since he got engaged to that girl."

"I'm okay. Viktor does what he wants and I'm happy for him. I think they're well suited."

"Then you're a better person than I am", Ron lamented, sitting down on the armchair that was opposite to the sofa.

"Is she seeing someone else?"

"I don't think so. She just came to realize that she didn't have genuine feelings for me, after all. It was sudden."

"How long ago was it?"

Ron turned to look at Hermione as if she was making no sense. "About an hour?!"

"What? Christina's the girl that got away?"

"No of course not, what are you talking about?...Oh. Oh. Yea, the woman I...care for, is dating someone else."

"Bugger." Hermione replied sympathetically, and Ron had a slight chuckle at her rare showing of improper language. They both sighed deeply, all anger having disappeared, leaving only melancholy and apathy in it's wake.

"This really hasn't been our night, huh." Hermione stated rhetorically.

"Why, what was wrong with yours? Well, apart from me showing up and acting like an arse." he grimaced self-deprecatingly.

"I told Percy that I couldn't keep on seeing him. He didn't take it so well."

Ron started to feel dizzy. This was too much to take in on one night. He was sure he was going to faint.

He had to leave, right now. He had to go somewhere and think. Or not- think; whichever would work best for the time being. In fact, not-thinking sounded pretty good, but probably impossible.

"I'm sorry but I have to go. I'll talk to you later." he told Hermione, and before she knew it he had done the same as his brother had just twenty or so minutes earlier.
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The Engagement